Denzel Washington Led Fences Film Will Open Christmas Day

Notifying all family members, children, and baes. Looks like we’re going to the movie theater this Christmas!

The film adaptation of August Wilson’sFences will open on December 16 for a limited release in New York and Los Angeles, and will expand nationwide on Christmas day. As previously reported, Denzel Washington will direct and star alongside Viola Davis, Mykelti Williamson, and Russell Hornsby, all of which are reprising their roles from the 2010 Broadway revival.

Fences is a 1983 play by American playwright August Wilson. Set in the 1950s, it is the sixth in Wilson’s ten-part “Pittsburgh Cycle,” a set of 10 plays set in Pittsburgh throughout an entire century. Like all of the “Pittsburgh” plays, Fences explores the evolving African-American experience and examines race relations, among other themes. The show centers on Troy Maxson, a Pittsburgh sanitation worker who once dreamed of a baseball career, but was too old when the major leagues finally admitted black players. As he faces off against the racial barrier at work and his own disappointments, Troy also grapples with his son Cory over the teenager’s hope for a football scholarship and with his wife, Rose, who confronts Troy over a child he has fathered with another woman.

The original Broadway production hit broadway in 1987. It won the Pulitzer Prize and Best Play Tony Award as well as Best Actor for James Earl Jones and Best Actress for Mary Alice. The same roles and Tony Awards later played/won by Washington and Davis in the revival.